Will Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul) survive to see the end of 'Breaking Bad?' / Frank Ockenfels 3, AMC

by Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

by Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

Walter White's transformation from high school chemistry teacher to drug dealer in Breaking Bad immediately drew in Bryan Cranston.

"Just the notion of trying to take a serialized television series and change this character, (it) has never been done before. I was aghast by that. I wanted this role really bad," Cranston told an audience at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills today.

Cranston was joined by fellow cast members, including fellow Emmy winner Aaron Paul and Bad creator Vince Gilligan, for a valedictory exercise of sorts as the fifth-season AMC drama prepares to launch its final eight episodes Aug. 11 (9 p.m. ET/PT). As the episodes start, White's brother-in-law, the DEA agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), has just figured out his role as a drug dealer.

White may have his own unique story, but anyone is capable of traveling that path toward darkness, Cranston said.

"I truly believe everybody is capable of good or bad. We are all human beings. We are all given this spectrum of emotions, and depending on your influences and your DNA and your parenting and your education and your social environment, the best of you can come out or the worst of you can come out," he said. "Given the right set of circumstances and dire situations any one of us can become dangerous."

Despite White's benign beginning, the Mr. Chips compared to the later Scarface, Gilligan acknowledged the character always had the potential to go bad.

"A good back and forth could get going over whether or not Walt's road to hell, while paved by good intentions, changed him or whether it revealed things that were already within him," he said. "The more I do the show, the more I subscribe to the latter argument."

Although Bad is coming to its end, Gilligan said he hopes for continuing life in the form of a spinoff featuring one of the characters, lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk).

"I really hope it happens," he said. "It's for powers bigger than me to figure out whether it can come to fruition. Creatively, we're working toward that."